When she's gone
by xxFuzzymelonlordxx
Summary: What if the last mission Summer went on was supposed to be for Summer and Taiyang? But they couldn't leave the girls alone, so one of them had to stay.


**A/N: So i run a blog on tumblr for Taiyang and this is based off of on of my headcanon**

 **The last mission Summer went on was actually sent to both Taiyang and Summer. Unfortunately since Qrow was gone on another mission at the time, they were lacking a babysitter so only one of them could go. The fought about it for a day or two, Taiyang saying he should go and Summer saying the opposite. The last night Summer decided to just go by herself, leaving in the middle of the night. She left a note for him, explaining what she'd done and Taiyang carries it with him all the time.**

 **and then i got the idea for this.**

* * *

"Summer, babe, come on. You know the girls like it more when you're taking care of them."

They had been arguing about this for hours and neither side was letting up. Not this time.

Summer crossed her arms over her chest and stared upat Taiyang, almost glaring. "And we both know that's not true. I'm going and you're staying here. It's not that big of a deal, you need to stop worrying so much." she complained, she hated how much he worried about her sometimes. Summer loved the man with all her heart but his worrying was going to be the death of her.

The blond male shook his head obviously not agreeing to the terms of this. "No i think you've got it wrong it's going to be the other way around. They need you here." he began, obviously making his argument up as he went along. "Besides _you_ promised Ruby that you would make cookies tomorrow and you can't back out on that. We all know that _I_ can't make cookies as well as you do so, I guess you _have_ to stay."

This argument was going nowhere and they both knew it.

Summer...had another plan though.

"Oh...oh yeah, Ruby would riot if i didn't stay." She muttered, biting down on her bottom lip.

Taiyang practically smirked in triumph. He slowly wrapped an arm around his love's waist and pulled her close, resting his forehead on her own.

"See? And everything's going to be fine out there, i'll be back before you know it." He reassured, assuming that he had finally won. After a day and a half of fighting about this it was a relief to the aging man.

With a laugh, Summer leaned up and kissed him softly. "I guess you're right..."

"Always am~"

* * *

"Daddy, Daddy! Wake up!" Taiyang felt the rough shoving of his seven year old look alike.

The 25 year old groaned, "What is it sweetie?" he questioned, not bothering to open his eyes even though he could hear soon to be 5 year old Ruby crying from the other room. He didn't feel Summer's presence beside him, so she was probably already taking care of the toddler.

"Mommy's not here!"

Those three words had him shooting out of bed. In seconds he was on his feet, running out of the room with a tiny Yang attempting to follow behind him. He had a horrible feeling about this, especially because of their conversation the previous day

"Summer! Come on, don't joke like this!" He shouted, praying she was just playing a joke on him, a joke that she had gotten Yang in on. So he began checking all the rooms in the house.

Kitchen: Nothing, Bathrooms: Nothing, Yang's room/closet: nothing, the living room: NOTHING,

Ruby's room was the last one...he could still hear the 4 year old wailing from inside and he quickly entered to comfort her as well as see if Summer was there.

He carefully lifted Ruby off her bed and began rocking her. She probably had nightmare. "It's alright squirt it was just a dream." he muttered to her as he made his way over to her closet and finding nothing but her tiny cloaks and dresses.

"Damn it Summer..." he muttered, he had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach and he doubted it would go away until Summer returned.

"Daddy where's Mommy? I want Mommy" Yang decalared, tugging on the pants leg of his pj's.

Taiyang slowly lowered himself to the floor to sit in front of Yang, sitting Ruby down on the floor next to her sister now that she had stopped crying.

He flashed a weak smile at his children. "Don't worry she'll be back soon. She's a super mom, remember? She'll be back in no time."

* * *

"Ozpin don't fucking lie to me!" Taiyang had never been this angry in his life, there was no way Ozpin was telling the truth. Summer wasn't...she couldn't be.

Ozpin kept a calm face as he stared down at Taiyang. Qrow and Glynda stood nearby, both with solemn expressions on their face. They had told Qrow before telling Taiyang since there was a chance of...this happening.

"I am very sorry Mr. Xiao Long, but Summer's body was never found." Ozpin spoke as he normally would, but there was a hit of softness. He knew Taiyang and he knew how much this would hurt him.

In an instant Taiyang had grabbed Ozpin by the collar, ready to punch him straight in the face. He didn't like liars and there was no possible way she was dead. No chance!

Qrow quickly snapped into action, pulling his old teammate off of Ozpin, but he didn't say a word as he did this. Taiyang fought his actions with every pull, struggling to get back to Ozpin and pound him into a bloody bruised mess. But he was so weak at that moment, his body felt numb. The words were hitting him and somewhere inside his mind, he knew that Ozpin wasn't lying.

Around the corner sat two little girls, one looking like she was about to fall asleep...the other though had figured out what had happened. "Come on Ruby, let's go back to bed..." she muttered, tears rolling down her face as she dashed back to her room. Alerting Glynda to their presence. The other three were still far to distracted to notice.

Taiyang's head hung limply as Qrow held him back, he kept muttering to himself that they had to be wrong and that she would be home in a few days.

"Qrow, i'll leave you to handle the situation." Ozpin told, turning on his heel to leave the home. "Come on Glynda." And they were gone.

Qrow decided that it was safe to let his friend go but as he did the blond simply slumped to his knees. "She can't be gone Qrow."

He had never heard his friend sound so utterly broken...not even when Raven left him. Qrow didn't even know what to say to him, words didn't seem like they would help...not in this instance.

"She can't be gone too."

* * *

Taiyang stared down at the floor as he sat in the living room of his small home. It reminded him to much of her to be here. It hurt to much to look at the room and remember all the times that they had spent together. It had been almost a year and by now he knew she was gone and she wasn't coming back.

Just that thought was enough to bring tears to Taiyang's eyes but he didn't move to wipe them away. He just...sat in silence.

Ruby and Yang had gone to bed hours ago thanks to Qrow.

He wanted to feel bad about not being there for his daughters but...right now he couldn't feel a damn things. It was like everything in his mind wa shut off and even though he knew that Summer wouldn't have wanted this...he couldn't make himself feel better.

Zwei, the service dog that Qrow had gotten him, whined softly and nudged his feet, but Taiyang didn't bother to reach down and pet the pup like Ruby or Yang would. He just stared into the room that seemed far to large and empty now that she was gone.

It wasn't long before the corgi left the room, leaving Taiyang to wallow in his frozen state all alone. It almost made the man laugh, even the dog left him.

Was he just that pathetic? First Raven left without a word, the Summer left and didn't return...never _could_ return. Qrow only came around for the girls and even they were keeping a distance from him and lastly the damn dog. Was that all he was good at? Pushing things away? That's what it felt like.

For the first time that evening the man shook from his spot and rested his head in his hands, the tears that had threatened to spill earlier finally being released. He tried his best to keep quiet, not wanting to wake the girls up, not wanting to bother their restful sleeping with his sorrow.

"Daddy, are you crying again?" Well...so much for that.

He moved his head from his hands and turned to face his eldest daughter, her blonde hair mussled from sleep. In her arms...was Zwei. Had he woken her up?

Yang made her way over to him, setting Zwei down on the ground before she climbed into her father's lap. She wrapped her small arms around her fathers neck and muttered. "I miss mommy." He was trying to hard to keep it together now, but it was so hard when Yang was speaking of Summer.

"I miss my daddy too." That was all he needed, his tears wouldn't stop now as he held his daughter close to him. He had been so selfish, thinking only for himself when his children were hurting just as much as he was. Yet here Yang was, acting like she was the adult where he was the child. He had broken down when Summer died, he had left those two little girls all alone and not knowing why their father had changed so much.

It was a few minutes before Taiyang could even speak again, but he pulled away from the embrace and smiled at his little ray of sunshine. "I'm a pretty bad daddy aren't I?" he said, making it sound like a joke when in all actuality he was pretty serious. "Come on, let's get you some milk and get you back into bed."

"Are you better now Daddy?" She asked a hopeful glint lay hidden in her lilac eyes as the male picked her up and stood from his chair.

"I will be."


End file.
